


Catatumbo Lightning

by star_angels



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: (maybe more) - Freeform, Alien Worlds, Angst, Cabin, Dark Jim, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Friendship, Hurt Jim, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Slow Burn, Smart Kirk, but I'm not going to spoil it by putting it in the tags, eventual slash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2017-01-29
Packaged: 2018-09-03 10:24:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8708821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/star_angels/pseuds/star_angels
Summary: -	An atmospheric phenomenon where lightning strikes the same place again and again. Just months after Enterprise-A is finished from the attack with Krall, things start to go eerily wrong for the command crew. Through this conflict, the crew learns more about their captain than they had ever known before. Can they stick together long enough to survive? “Throughout his life, he was lead to wonder if he had used up all of his collective luck in that one instance, with lightning in his eyes…”





	1. Prologue: Through Terror We See Light

**Author's Note:**

> Each chapter will be poem related. 
> 
> Special thanks to Memory Alpha for helping me with timelines. 
> 
> I will add new warnings and tags if I need to, so please pay attention to those during each new update. 
> 
> If you see any mistakes, please tell me. I'm not the best with grammar and I have yet to find a beta.

”Drowned inside of me  
The rain never ends  
within us  
We are crying lightning  
The lightning  
shines your eyes  
seems child crying  
The thunder makes the earth vibrate  
Rays begin to dance”

“Where are the lightning” - Dave Von Grey

\----------

In the midst of a ravaging firefight on January 4th, 2233, James Tiberius Kirk was born two and a half months premature. He was known as a miracle baby, as no other had been able to withstand that amount of radiation as young as he. Thinking back, he didn’t believe he was much of a miracle, only a scientific anomaly to have been born aboard the Kelvin’s medical shuttle no. 37. Throughout his life, he was lead to wonder if he had used up all of his collective luck in that one instance, with lightning in his eyes and immune deficiencies to show for it. 

\----------

By the time he was six, he learned to read. Not just the books he found in the shed that were layered with dust that made his nose tickle, but people, too. He could see how his mother would go on space ships because of his too blonde hair and his too strong personality. He could tell the exact moment he was going to get punished for not doing his chores by Frank, could see the pity in the store clerk’s eyes every time he and Sam had to steal apples before school. James looked to the stars sometimes and wondered if he could read them as easily as he could everyone else.

He was smart, his teachers said he was gifted, but even they got annoyed with his persistent questions, so he learned not to ask. He taught himself how to get information on his own, learned how to break the password on the school PADDs so he could do actual work beyond the games his peers were playing. He knew he was different and told Sam as much, “You shouldn’t try to stand out, someone might notice you. You don’t want that.” 

Sam was always smarter than James, so he listened, and tried not to stand out. By the time he was seven, he got average grades and asked the same mindless questions his classmates did. 

\----------

At eleven, Sam left. James drove his father’s car off a cliff. 

\----------

When Captain Pike found him beaten and bruised, laying on a table in the bar next to his old house, he had already learned how many times lightning could strike the same place.


	2. Restless Heroes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is still kind of short, I'm halfway through the next chapter though. Also, keep in mind that I wrote this really loosely. However, I tried to keep the characters as similar to the movies as I could. Let me know if you see any errors in my text, I looked over it once or twice, but there's always something I miss.

“I’ve been counting stars so long that I have lost track of the moon.”  


“Counting Stars” – Clindballe

\----------

Jim got up an hour early and went to the officer’s mess, he couldn’t help getting out of bed before his alarm. He was too excited. He learned last night from Admiral Barnett that they had a new mission and were scheduled to change course to a yet-to-be-explored system as soon as his shift started. 

The past couple of months they had been dealing with purely diplomatic missions and star charting as a sort of test run for the enterprise. He loved space and he loved just looking at the stars, but at this point, he was just getting bored. However, he knew that the Enterprise needed the test run. After all, they had almost built her back from scratch. It had taken close to a year, a year he spent dilly dallying around the universe and helping Scotty repair the ship’s battered body whenever he was back at Yorktown. He had tried to stay in contact with the crew while he was gone, but he knew he would only be distracting them from their families. They deserved to have a little family time after spending nearly three years in space with little to no breaks. 

He had a feeling that their home was with their families, unlike him. His home was with his crew and his ship. His ship that he had destroyed. Sometimes, he lay awake at night softly apologizing for hurting her. He knew, logically, that she wasn’t really alive, but after all the time he spent in her sleek halls and around her humming warp core, it was hard to believe she was anything but a member of his family. Watching her die was more painful than he’d ever admit to anyone, and scrounging around in her gutted and almost completely decimated body had been even worse. 

As the memories of that fateful and destructive mission hit him, he had to look down at the ground where he was standing. Sometimes he really hated his near eidetic memory. He could have lost everything on that mission. A captain is nothing without their crew and their ship. He would have been nothing, he knew that he would survive as he normally did, but he wouldn’t be living. There was a large difference between merely surviving and actually living, he knew. 

He ordered what he usually did on Wednesdays, a simple chicken sandwich. As awful as replicator food was when compared to real food, it did have its benefits. For example, he could order anything he wanted from it and not succumb to an allergic reaction. Bones had helped him reprogram all the replicators to forego replicating the proteins he was allergic to. 

Lost in thought, the captain almost didn’t recognize when his first officer, Spock, walked right to his table and sat down. He assumed Spock had questions about the mission parameters he sent him an hour ago. During the year his ship was being rebuilt he had, “disappeared from the god damn universe,” as Bones had put it. He grew more distanced with his crew, including Spock. They hadn’t even played chess since before the Enterprise was destroyed. He had also grown more distanced with his best friend, Doctor McCoy, he knew at some point the annoying southern doctor would want to have a word with him, but he had been skillfully avoiding Bones for a while now. It wasn’t his fault that their schedules clashed.

“Good morning, Spock.” The captain readily greeted to his first officer. 

Spock nodded and began to eat his meal, long acquainted with the human need for ‘pleasantries.’ He didn’t mind when Jim used them, however, it was only when diplomats and other various people he met said them without meaning. When Jim said them, he could tell that his captain was being genuine. 

“Captain, I read over what you sent me this morning, we should change course within the next two hours if we wish to make it to the newly named Garrop system within the next five days.”

Jim smiled lightly, constantly amused by how formal Spock was, “I agree, after I finished eating, I was planning on briefing the bridge crew and changing the course. This mission is going to be great.”

The Vulcan tilted his head, “You can hardly know how this mission is going to end up, as we have little to no information regarding the system we are to be exploring, therefore you have no basis for your reasoning.” 

Jim knew Spock was teasing him, based on the barely there wrinkles around him eyes, so he teased with a grin, “Just call it a gut feeling, Spock.” 

\----------

Walking onto the bridge together, both Spock and Jim relieved their beta shift counterparts. Noticing that everyone else on his bridge crew was already there, he said, “Uhura, call Scotty and Doctor McCoy. Have them meet us in my ready room in ten minutes.” The communications officer nodded and did just that, as Jim sank gracefully into the captain’s chair. He smiled lightly, it felt good to be sitting in his chair again, even if he’d been doing it almost every day for the last three months. He still had a year to catch up on. 

“Command crew, be prepared to also meet in my ready room in ten minutes. We have a new mission.” Jim spoke in what he liked to call his, “captain voice,” but his tone was put off due to the easy smile he had on his face. The crew knew that whatever mission they were going to be on, was very exciting to the captain. Although, to be fair, they knew that almost anything could excite their captain. 

A chorus of yes sir’s reached Jim’s ears as he pulled up his PADD and attempted to get at least one of the reports he had been procrastinating on filed and sent in to Starfleet. It still boggled him, even years after being captain, why they needed so much paperwork. By the time he had gotten one report done, Bones and Scotty were walking from the turbolift and onto the bridge. 

“Damnit, Jim. I’m busy.” Bellowed the good doctor as soon as he was standing next to the captain’s chair. 

Jim smirked, as he looked up to his best friend, “Bones, why so bitter?”

The doctor glared at Jim as the captain waved his hand before standing up, effectively cutting off Doctor McCoy’s reply, “Let’s go. Errins you have the conn while we’re gone, it shouldn’t take long.” 

He walked to the ready room and sat down in a chair at the head of the table while everyone else filled in. Spock sat to his right and McCoy to his left, Jim felt a feeling of rightness as he noticed this fact. 

Sitting up straighter, he said, “Alright then, last night we got a new mission. We will be heading to the Garrop system. It was named by a freight ship who passed by it, but not into it, last month. We will be heading there to explore and report back everything we find. Preliminary reports and scans say that there could be the potential for life on the fourth planet from the system’s star. However, we will have to take more accurate readings once we get closer. I have sent each of you any and all additional information you will need to know. Spock, you will be in charge of scanning the system when we get close enough. Uhura, monitor all frequencies when we are in range. Sulu, plan a course and put it into action the moment we get on the bridge. Other duties specific to you will be sent privately.” There was silence in the room as everyone processed the information they had been given while they scrolled through the report on their PADDs. 

Jim waited patiently for a few moments before asking, “Any questions?” 

No one answered for a few seconds until Bones replied, “Yeah, why am I here?

Jim smiled before answering, “I knew you’d ask that, doctor. You are here because the Federation has recently been looking into developing new medicines. They are now asking that any planet being explored possibly containing fauna of some kind have a doctor on the landing party. You were the best pick because of your many papers on developing new medicines and vaccines.”

At this new information, the doctor grumbled, but made no protest. Jim knew that Bones had been bothering the Federation to start paying attention to the medical implications of all the new and diverse plant life they find in various places across the universe. That’s why Jim had convinced the admirals to start letting doctors do research with the botany labs over the plants they find on away missions. He knew that it would put an extra work load on his friend and the other participants, but he knew they all welcomed the work if it was to help people. He had an awesome crew like that. 

Waiting for a few moments to see if anyone else had any additional questions, Jim finally spoke again, “If anyone has any other questions they come up with later, just come find me. Okay, dismissed.” 

Everyone in the room either nodded or said. “Yes, sir,” to Jim before leaving. Only Spock remained with Jim, “Am I correct in assuming that you will be on the landing party, captain?” 

Jim loved that his first officer knew him so well, “Why, yes, Mr. Spock.” Jim agreed with an easy wrinkle to his eyes.

“I would like to also be a part of the landing party, as there will likely be new fauna and micro life to be discovered.” 

Jim considered his argument, “If the scans show that there will, indeed, be those things on the fourth planet in the system, then I will allow you to come. We will leave Scotty in charge, because I know Sulu has been itching to be on an interesting away team for a while now.” 

Nodding, Spock left the ready room and Jim followed behind him. They made their way back onto the bridge and Jim took back the conn from Mr. Errins. 

\----------

Three days later, they were close enough to the system to start scanning it. They finally learned that the fourth planet from the sun, now appropriately deemed Garrop IV, was a life bearing planet. Scans showed that it was a class M planet, although it had higher amounts of oxygen than Earth. The scans also showed that there was likely a tall canopy, but few animals. They would find out when they got there if there was intelligent life, it was hard for their scans to penetrate what was hidden underneath the plant life on the planet. It worried Jim slightly that they likely wouldn’t find out if there was intelligent life on Garrop IV until they were being shot at. However, it wouldn’t be the first time he has gotten them out of a sticky situation. Actually, now that he thought back on it, a large portion of their missions didn’t go as planned.


	3. Alluring Beauty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wasn't that happy with this chapter, but I promised a quick update, so here we are.

“Vast, endless void with open arms  
Drift into the stars  
No cause for alarm  
When you’re here you’re home  
This is a fact  
In this open space I never look back  
Discover it all, float away with a purpose  
Mind so open creating space within space to surface  
A broad spectrum of uncharted unknowns  
I’ve never felt so close to home  
Than I do given space”

“Space” – Jorge Echevarria

\----------

When they finally reached the planet, it was beautiful. It was a color of blue that Jim hadn’t seen on a planet that wasn’t purely aquatic before. He was sure there was a scientific reason why the tall canopy was that extraordinary color of blue and the oceans a dark, blood red, but he thought that if he found out, it would make the planet a little less magical. The colors contrasted nicely and he was sure that once they finally set foot down there, it would be even more breathtaking. 

Jim passed over the conn to Scotty before both Sulu and Spock followed him into the turbolift and to the transporter room. The landing party consisted of seven people: himself, Bones, Sulu, Spock, nurse Beth, Cupcake aka Lt. Hendorff, and another security officer, Rogers. Spock had insisted that they bring two security officers because of how little they knew about what was under the canopy. Jim hadn’t disagreed. He wasn’t going to be taking chances with his crew anytime soon, although he was fairly certain that everything would be perfectly fine when they beamed to the surface. 

Everyone on the transporter had quickly and efficiently put on their gear, consisting of a medical kit for Bones and the two security officers, phasers and communicators for all, and a tricorder for all the science officers and Doctor McCoy. 

Once everyone was prepared, Jim said, “Alright, beam us down, Charles.” As light swirled around them, he could hear Bones mumble something about ‘not natural’ and ‘aneurisms.’ Jim thought that he too would rather it be Scotty that was beaming them down, but that couldn’t be helped, as Scotty was on the bridge. 

\----------

They beamed into a small clearing surrounded by canopy, at first glance it was beautiful. Even Bones let out a low whistle upon arrival. The air smelled of flowers and fresh air. The sky was a lilac color due to some of the elements interacting in the atmosphere, there were few clouds, but from what Sulu could see, they were a white or grey color. 

After briefly looking around, Kirk said, “Spread out in teams, Spock you’re with me. Hendorff, go with Bones. Nurse Beth, you go with Sulu and Rogers. Keep track of where you’re going, and circle back here in two hours. If you see anything funny or suspicious, comm the rest of us right away. We aren’t taking any chances. Lastly, make sure you document everything you see for reports.” 

Receiving nods, the captain and Spock began to head North through the canopy and towards what looked to be a small mountain. 

The air wasn’t cold, but considering how Spock had put on his outer wear, it must not be very warm. It was hard to tell for Jim sometimes because of how comfortable to adverse conditions he was. They hiked and cut through the canopy without talking, the sounds of the unknown bugs and the movement of the wind through the trees filling the air. Jim and Spock never needed words to fill the air between them, sometimes when they played chess they wouldn’t speak for an entire game, and more often than not, their games lasted hours. Jim missed those games. 

Taking more notice around them, Kirk noticed that besides the wind and the sounds of the bugs, there really weren’t any other noises. While he knew that there weren’t many animals based off of the scans, he had to wonder why. There was plenty of food for them, the lush plants around them were proof of that. There were freshwater streams coming from the tops of the hills and mountains. He could see no reason why wildlife wouldn’t thrive here. 

“Hey, Spock…”

“Yes, Captain?” The Vulcan answered from in front of him. 

The captain shared his thoughts while looking more carefully around where they were hiking, “Why aren’t there tons of animals on this planet, the conditions seem optimal for a large variety of life.” 

Spock tilted his head to the side and slowed his pace slightly so he was now walking beside of the captain, “I do not know. However, if I were to speculate, there may have been an extinction event that wiped out the animal life, but left the smaller bugs and the plants.” 

This was almost exactly what Jim was thinking, he doubted this would be a problem for them, though. Extinction events on most planets only happened once every 400 to 500 years. That didn’t change the fact that the mostly silent forest around them gave him the creeps. 

\----------

In exactly two hours, everyone met up where they had initially beamed down. Everyone was intact and Jim was relieved. On their trip back, Kirk and Spock had talked about all the different kind of extinction events that could have occurred while scanning the plant life. To say that their conversation made Jim a little bit nervous was an understatement. 

Huddled in a group, the team exchanged their findings. Kirk was elated to find out that both Bones and nurse Beth had found plants that they thought could help them in some way. Bones said something about an alternative pain killer, while Beth had found something that could possibly be used as an antibiotic. 

Happy with their findings, Kirk decided to beam back up aboard the ship and send some more medical and science personnel down to the surface. He would also send down two more security officers, just to be careful. 

“Good job, everyone. I’m going to go back to our ship with the samples you’ve already found and send back more people with more sample holders.” 

With quick nods and big smiles about their accomplishments, the team agreed. Even Bones was acting slightly less grumpy. 

Opening up his communicator, Jim said, “Kirk to enterprise.”

“Enterprise here, sir.”

Recognizing the voice with a smile, he replied, “Beam me and a few samples up, Uhura.” 

“Right away, sir.”

Shortly, a glow surrounded him, swirling and gold. 

\----------

The next day, Jim still couldn’t get that feeling of wrongness out of his system. Initially, he thought it was from visiting the silent, dense forest of Garrop IV, but now he wasn’t sure. His gut was telling him something and he had learned never to ignore his instincts a long time ago. 

His command team was all back onboard with Spock and McCoy in the labs, Scotty back in engineering, and everyone else on the bridge. This helped him feel a little better, albeit only a small bit. 

Noticing the captain’s subdued behavior, Uhura asked, “Is everything alright, Captain?” She was a communications officer after all. She knew when someone’s body language was off and Kirk had no reason to be nervous for all that she knew. 

Pulled from his thoughts, Jim turned in his chair and briefly looked at her before answering, “I’ve just got a bad gut feeling is all. Everything’s probably fine.” He gave her a cocky smile and allowed his posture to go back to normal before turning back around. 

Watching the captain’s body language turn to casual allowed Uhura to forget that she even saw his nervousness in the first place. She simply nodded and went back to work, going over some text from their last mission. 

\----------

After shift, Jim didn’t go to rec room 2 like he usually did to hang out with his crew, instead he went immediately back to his cabin. He needed to check some things out. That feeling he had low in his gut still hadn’t gone away yet. He kept rationalizing to himself that it was probably nothing, but he just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was going to turn sideways any time now. 

He got out his personal PADD and started searching through the camera feeds and security sensors on the ship. He wasn’t afraid to admit that he was paranoid. More often than not, his paranoia saved lives. He knew that Lt. Hendorff, who he still calls Cupcake as an inside joke, and his protégé, Rogers, both checked these security measures every so often too. Even though the computer was supposed to alert them if there were any discrepancies aboard his ship, sometimes the computer missed things. Even if he had recoded her himself, he knew that lines of code can only do so much. 

This didn’t mean he wasn’t impressed with her. He felt like an extremely proud parent whenever he thought of the Enterprise and her computer, in many ways they were one in the same, the lines of code he slaved over for years had finally come together magnificently into the brains of the Enterprise. For the short time he was in Iowa during his childhood, he would run away to watch the Enterprise being built whenever he wanted to get away from Frank and the annoying teachers of his school. He had grown up with her in more ways than one. 

After realizing that his mind had been drifting, Jim refocused on the footage scrolling past his eyes. Nothing seemed amiss, but he still had hours and hours of film to get through. Usually he did this over the expanse of a week, but he knew he wouldn’t sleep well until he got this through. 

Well, he’d just have to do it like he did in the academy when he was cramming for finals. He remembers Bones yelling at him, saying, “That’s just not fair, kid! Let us mere mortals try to keep up.” He truly never meant to upset Bones, he knew he was different and he was sorry for that. 

At the time, all his teachers thought he slept his way through most of his classes or was cheating somehow, he let them believe that because he knew he wasn’t anything more than a pretty blonde who got into Starfleet because of his last name, and he was okay with that. 

Jim opened a display of holograms around him through his modified PADD, three separate sets of footage surrounded him, making the process go three times faster. He was glad that he had put in the time last month to upgrade both his and Bones’ PADDs. Although, the good doctor didn’t know he had done that yet, he was sure that Bones was going to be surprised when he found out. 

\----------

After looking at and processing three holograms at once for four and a half hours, Jim was starting to get a headache. He knew how long he could push himself to do this, and he wasn’t even near his limit, but he usually went to sleep an hour ago. He also knew how much sleep he truly needed to function, he just didn’t really want to chug six cups of coffee in the morning and be harassed by Bones. 

Just when he was about to call it a night, Jim saw something on the left hologram’s screen. He didn’t know that crew member, but he knew all crew members. Even the ones that had transferred last week. He made it his own personal duty to know all the names and faces of his 432 crew and some basic things about them. Before anyone came onto his ship, he checked up on them, he usually didn’t get past a basic background check most of the time though. 

Except… He didn’t think that this was one of his crew members. He shut off the other two holograms and enlarged the one with the unknown, tall man on it. He tracked the man’s movements all the way from the transporter room exactly one week and two days ago, to the engineering department, and to the hallways of the cabins on deck 12. He wore a red shirt so he was either a new security officer or posing as security, he didn’t want to throw accusations yet. After all, even he missed things sometimes. 

He thought he recognized the man from somewhere, but he couldn’t be sure. There was definitely something similar about him, but something was still off. After running a facial scan and coming up with the name and rank of Ensign Taylor Robertson, he let his suspicion abate somewhat. Then he pulled up a full picture of his profile…

His heart rate skyrocketed as his muscles coiled tight where he was sitting at his desk. Fight or flight reflexes already settling in. A million thoughts flittered through his brain all at once, all of them competing to be noticed. How did they find him? What do they want? How is he going to keep his crew safe?

He took a deep, shaky breath and forced himself to relax on the exhale. He had to come up with a plan and he had to do it fast. The man who was now calling himself Taylor Robertson had already been on his ship for a week. Presumably, he had gotten onto the ship the last time they were at a starbase, before they had received the mission they were currently on. He had to see if there were others and he had to figure out what they were planning. He was going to keep his family and his ship safe, there was no other option.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *dramatic music plays* Lol, sorry for the slight cliff hanger, you'll find out in a few chapters what exactly is going on, I promise. Also, I edited a tiny spelling error.


	4. Accompany Me

“Most of us can read the writing on the wall; we just assume it’s addressed to someone else.” -Ivern Ball. 

\----------

Three days later, the Enterprise crew was preparing to leave Garrop IV. They had already sent a recommendation to Starfleet that they send a science team back to the planet sometime soon. The planet still had much to offer in the way of science and new medical research. Doctor McCoy was even reluctant to leave, but they had their orders. They were to go and explore a nebula system 24 light years away due to some anomalies that popped up on Starfleet’s new long range scanner. Uhura was almost certain that it was just some glitches in the system, they had only had the long range scanner up and running for a few months now. More than likely, they would go all the way there, just to find nothing. They would even be out of communication range to Starfleet, due to sub space interference from the nebula surrounding the area and how far away they truly were from any other civilization. Nyota liked exploring, but sometimes the thought of being so far away from everyone and everything leads to sleepless nights. 

She told Spock what she thought about the new mission and of course, he agreed. They had ceased their relationship one year, two months, and thirteen days ago, but Spock would like to think they were still good friends. There was a limited number of people he could truly confide in and she was one of them. Despite everything, he still loved her, just in a different sense than he had originally thought. Nyota was more understanding than many of the stories he had heard of breakups. She was a very logical person, that’s what attracted Spock to her in the first place. She was completely unlike their illogical Captain, who had been unaccounted for during most of the last few days. Not that Spock couldn’t pick up the slack by doing more paperwork and more overseeing, but it was certainly strange that Jim would miss an opportunity to, “Boldly go,” as he would say. 

According to the computer, Jim had been all over the ship. All the way from Engineering to the deck 16 lounge. Spock had been tempted to just show up at the captain’s courters and simply ask the man why he had been passing off so many shifts lately, but Nyota had told him that sometimes people just needed a break every now and then. She said that the captain had been working hard ever since the Enterprise had been rebuilt, although Spock had never known this to be much of a problem for the captain before now. 

Not even the enamored Doctor McCoy could tell him what the captain was up to. The doctor had also confided that there was currently a rift between himself and Jim. Apparently, the captain was distancing himself from the doctor. This didn’t particularly surprise Spock, as Jim had done the same thing to him. Spock would loathe to admit it, but it was discomforting to suddenly not have Jim to talk to and play chess with. While the man was deeply emotional in some occasions and completely illogical in others, Spock thought time spent with Jim, was time well spent. His way of thinking was so contrasted to how he thinks, that many thought they would immediately clash. However, Spock and Jim had found a type of balance that no other first officer and captain could compete with. They were quite a force to be reckoned with.

Speaking of the captain, Jim was supposed to be on the bridge in two minutes so he could sign off on their order to leave and organize the party to explore the anomaly. Spock had commed him only minutes before to remind him, just in case Jim had forgot. 

Right on time, the captain walked out of the turbolift, PADD in one hand and coffee in the other. 

Smiling, he said, “Good morning alpha command crew.” A wave of small grins replied. The crew was happy to see their captain, they had missed him these last few days. 

He proceeded to walk to his chair and sit down after Spock relinquished the spot, Chekov saying, “Keptin on the bridge.” 

After Jim sat down the PADD he had in his hand onto the arm of his chair, Spock handed him another PADD with the file he needed to sign on it. Standing next to the captain, Spock watched as he briefly scrolled through the report and signed it at the bottom, seemingly without even reading the document. While this was something Jim would usually never do, Spock decided not to say anything. He was starting to believe what Uhura had said, standing close to Jim, he could now see dark circles blooming under the man’s eyes and a light-colored layer of stubble on his face. Clearly, something was bothering the captain to the point of him missing more sleep than usual. 

Jim handed Spock the PADD back without comment and the Vulcan first officer returned to his station with a growing uneasiness about what was worrying his captain. 

Spock remembered the last time he had seen the captain in a state such as this, it had been during one of their last missions before the battle with Krall. Jim had been banned from going down to the surface of HH1 by Doctor McCoy after Jim had gotten his arm broken by saving an ensign on the previous mission. The landing party consisted of himself, Doctor McCoy, Lt. Uhura, an ensign, and two security officers. It was supposed to be a simple mission, but a local band of rebels had captured the landing party upon arrival. 

They weren’t treated badly, just held captive and used for leverage against the government of HH1, but Jim had apparently not known that at the time. 

Their captain was under the assumption that they had been taken by another, much more aggressive, rebel force, due to misinformation told to him by HH1’s diplomats. Essentially, the government had used Jim to track down and capture the rebel force known as Hhuri. Meanwhile, the landing crew was seated safely in a locked room filled with whatever they would require. The team had obviously tried to escape, but all their attempts had failed. 

After three days of capture, almost everyone was anxious, they were beginning to wonder if they would ever return to the Enterprise. Although, Spock told them that such thoughts were illogical. Doctor McCoy also told everyone to, “Shut the ever-loving fuck up and have a little faith in our bone headed captain.” 

Soon enough, their captain did indeed find and free them. However, it was clear that their captain was in more need of saving than they were. Opening their door, Spock and McCoy saw an expression on their friend’s face that they had only seen once or twice before. It was a look of pure anger, and it was terrifying. Even Spock, who claimed no emotion, paused in almost disbelief. But as soon as the expression was there, it was gone. Wiped away from Jim’s face and replaced with relief and joy. 

The moment they got back, McCoy hounded Jim about going to sickbay. To the worry of everyone in the room, Jim went without a fight and even smiled a little as his friend lead him down the corridor. “Bones” as Jim had dubbed him, informed Spock with low words of Jim’s story a week later, Spock knew that Jim hadn’t told the doctor much, but McCoy was great at putting together the pieces. 

Spock then knew to never doubt that their captain would do anything to save any of his crew. Just look at the remains of the Hhuri rebel force for proof. Spock had seen the holos of what was left and talked to the crew members onboard at the time, but no one would say a word. Scotty only said, “Aye, let’s just say I wonna ever be caught between the captain and his crew.” 

He hoped that whatever Jim was working though now wasn’t related to one of the crew being in danger. After all, it seems that every time a crew member is in danger, Jim ends up getting hurt trying to save them. While noble, sometimes Spock wished the captain would be less reckless and more concerned with his own well-being. That’s why McCoy and Spock had come to an unspoken agreement. They would both try their best to protect their captain, and their captain tried his best to protect every innocent being in the universe. 

\----------

Jim peaked up in his chair before asking with a smile usually only reserved for the young navigator, “Is the course laid in, Chekov?”

“Aye, Captain.” Came the immediate reply. 

Jim then said, “Let’s head out, Mr. Sulu. Warp six.” 

Sulu gave a nod and an “Aye, Sir,” before initiating warp protocols and slowly bringing the Enterprise to warp six.

Kirk then turned in his chair to face his science officer, “What’s our estimated time of arrival at warp six, Commander?” 

Jim, already knowing the answer asked anyways out of impulse. It’s a hard habit to break when you’ve spent almost your whole life pretending to be just a little less than what you truly are. 

Spock replied, “0900 hours, Captain.” 

Nodding, Kirk swiveled back to marvel at the stars now flying past the Enterprise at warp before getting back to typing on his PADD, he still had a lot to do before they got to the discrepancy. 

Spock watched as his captain devoted all his attention to the single PADD in his hands and failed to keep up the friendly chatter and teasing that usually floated around while Jim was on the bridge. He would bring up this with Doctor McCoy at a later time. There was something certainly not right about the captain’s recent behavior when compared with his usual behavioral patterns. He had thought about just bringing it up with Jim, but he has found that in order to find things out about the captain, he either has to wait until Jim comes to him or he has to go to Leonard McCoy. 

\----------

They got to the location where Starfleet’s long range scanner spotted the anomaly at exactly 0910 hours. To no one’s surprise, their communication to ‘fleet had been overrun by static due to the nebula’s interference about four hours ago. 

The captain was back on the bridge as was the rest of alpha shift, all of them waiting for their scanners to pick up anything that shouldn’t be there. It was still unnaturally quiet on the bridge, no matter how hard Chekov tried to engage the captain in idle conversation. Spock hoped that the captain’s “silent treatment” ended soon. 

Breaking the stillness around the bridge, Kirk commed sickbay with a curt, “Bridge to sickbay.”

Hastily, someone replied, “Sickbay to bridge. What’s wrong, captain?”

Jim smiled a moment before answering, “Nothing’s wrong, nurse Beth. Could you just ask Bones to come up here for a moment?”

Beth was relieved that was all that the captain required, helping to stitch the man’s bones back together had made her think that he was more than a little accident prone. Regardless, she replied, “Sure thing, sir.”

Spock questioned what the captain was doing. However, it wasn’t uncommon for the doctor to simply show up on the bridge. It is just that in all the previous times, it had never been initiated by the captain himself. 

It only took mere moments for doctor McCoy to come through the turbolift door. “Jim, you’re gonna need a good reason for calling me up here in the middle of my shift.” 

The captain simply turned in his chair and offered a smirk to his friend, “Maybe I just missed your cheery attitude, Bones.”

Despite their banter, McCoy strolled right up to the captain’s chair and said lowly, “What do you need, kid?”

Jim went back to his PADD for a moment before motioning to McCoy to lower his head so that he could whisper something into his ear, “I just need you to accompany me somewhere, Bones.” 

With his Vulcan hearing, Spock heard the comment and his own thoughts seemed to be mirrored on doctor McCoy’s face. Leonard was just about to say something along the lines of, “What the hell are you talking about, Jim,” when all of the lights on the bridge went out and the ship gave a small lurch, not even the turbolift gave off the soft glow that it normally did. 

The doctor would have been knocked clear off his feet if Jim had not put out a stabilizing arm to catch him. There was quiet talk around the bridge as well as many, much louder, protests from Bones about having bad luck when the captain asked, “Someone connect me to engineering and figure out what’s going on.” 

Uhura announced, “We have no communication to any other part of the ship. Something is blocking the signal.” The bridge seemed to suddenly get even darker than before, originally having the lights from the surrounding nebula through the portholes to light the room as well as the glow that is usually emitted from the ship’s electronics. 

Spock said calmly, although no one could see where exactly he was, “It seems that some of the UV protective shields have been lowered in order to prevent us from seeing anything. Also, I would believe all the lights at our consoles have gone out as well.”

To which Bones replied, “Even a bat could see that, you hobgoblin.”

Suddenly, there was a bright blue glow in the darkness of the bridge that illuminated around a few of the crew members. The captain asked calmly, yet loudly, “What is this? This looks like transport-“ 

Before he could complete his thought, he seemed to have disappeared along with some of the other alpha crew members, leaving the room in utter darkness once again. Unfamiliar with anything like this and a little frantic, Lt. Errins spoke up, “This is Errins. One at a time, say your name out loud so we know who is still here.” 

One by one the names came, none of them proved to be their commanding officers, “Ensign Rogers, sir.”

“Mikaelson.”

“Yeoman Baker, sir”

The four members of the room waited for more names, but none came. Errins said, “Alright, we need to get out of here through the turbolift and try to get help. Does anyone have access to an emergency light? There should be emergency kits under some of the consoles.” It was so dark that no one was even completely sure if their eyes were open or not. 

Sounds of people trying to feel around filled the dark room and Yeoman Baker spoke up, “Sir, I felt around for the kit and I think I found it, but there is no emergency light in here.” 

Keeping a curse from slipping through his mouth, Errins spoke, “Alright, look around for a few more minutes and then we will try and make our way to the turbolift without the lights.”

Errins heard a few cuss words accompanying small thuds when someone would occasionally bump into something. Just as soon as they were going to try and make their way to the turbolift without the aid of light, the power seemed to come back on all around the bridge, plunging them in a bright light that their eyes took long moments to adjust to. 

As soon as Mikaelson could see, he swiftly walked to Uhura’s former station and connected the bridge to engineering with Errins, Rogers, and Yeoman Baker following closely behind him. 

“Aye, this is engineering, we seemed to just have had a power surge an-”

Errins spoke over who was obviously Lieutenant Scott, “Sir, the bridge went dark and the captain and other command crew members were beamed off the ship.” 

The line was quiet for a few moments before Scotty bellowed, “What do’ya mean that they were beamed off the ship?”

Errins tried to speak calmly as he said, “I think you need to get up here, sir.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, it’s taken me forever to get this chapter out because I just want to skip to the good parts. I’m just an extremely impatient writer. Honestly, there’s too much rising action and not enough of the good stuff, but I know if I rush it, I’ll end up ending it sooner than I would have liked. Sorry the chapter isn't that long, but soon I'll get the fic to where I had envisioned it to be in the first place and I'll write better, longer chapters.


	5. Locking Arms in the Face of the Unknown

Blood stained swords lay sheathed.  
Bodies baptized in the gore.  
We have won the war. 

“War I Haiku” - Tristan W. 

\----------

Doctor McCoy was stunned into silence for the first time in his life when he reappeared inside what looked to be an alien ship, his insides still felt like they had been misplaced due to the transporter beam and he was sure that was the least of his problems. He noticed the other members of the crew who had also reappeared looking confused, with the exception of Spock, who looked as stoic as ever besides the slight eyebrow raise. However, he noted that Spock had a blade out and was scanning the room around them. The doctor had no clue where he would have even gotten a blade from. 

Immediately, McCoy remembered that Jim should have been with them and hastily looked around, finding him sitting in what could be the piolets seat of the ship. 

Finally breaking the silence and voicing his confusion, Bones said, “Jim, what in blazes is going on?” 

Jim didn’t look up from where he was sitting, pressing all kinds of buttons that looked to the rest of them unrecognizable when he said, “It’s fine, guys. Stand down, we weren’t actually kidnapped. I’ll explain everything in a moment, I just gotta do something first.”

Spock put the blade he carried back into his boot as the view screen to the ship came online. Everyone noticed how they were looking at the Enterprise from behind, the ship’s bridge seemed to be lit up once again. 

Standing behind Jim, Spock said, “Captain, I am unclear as to how or why we are in this situation.” 

Jim was entering in codes left and right to the ship, but still answered with a small smile, “You’re just going to have to trust me, Spock.” 

Spock just inclined his head and stepped back, allowing the captain to continue on with what he was doing. On this ship, he had counted Lt. Uhura, Doctor McCoy, Ensign Chekov, Lt. Sulu, the Captain, and himself. Although, he wasn’t sure about the rest of the ship. 

Seemingly reading his thoughts, the captain announced, “You are all welcome to explore the ship, just don’t press any buttons or open any airlocks.” 

The crew gave their agreement, Spock and Lt. Sulu left through the door they assumed lead to the rest of the ship, while everyone else sat down in the seats around the captain. 

Uhura asked Leonard, “Do you have any clue what he’s up to this time?”

The doctor shook his head, “No idea whatsoever, for all I know, he could be crazier than a betsy bug.” 

Chekov spoke up, “Doctor, no one ever knows vwat you mean vwen you say things like that.”

McCoy shrugged and clarified, “A betsy bug is a beetle down in Georgia that makes lots of ruckus and flies every which way, they look like they’re insane.” 

The young Russian nodded, before answering, “Da, in Russia we had many bugs that were like that. One was called a shield bug and they fly this vway and that and run into many things.”

Throughout his explanation, Chekov was gesturing left and right, his mood seemingly unfazed by recent events. This made both Doctor McCoy and Nyota give a small smile at their navigator. 

The captain even gave a low chuckle from where he was at the helm. After a few more minutes of idle chatter, Spock and Lt. Sulu came back in, Sulu saying, “It’s all clear, captain, not another soul on board.”

Spock nodded in agreement before sitting down with Sulu behind the captain. 

As soon as everyone was in their seats, the captain said, “I don’t think there are buckles on these seats anymore, but hang on for a bit.”

Before anyone could disagree, the captain was charging up the ship’s phasers and locking onto the starboard side of the enterprise. 

Spock, knowing that the humming sound of the ship was the sound of the phasers warming up, said calmly, “Captain, this is most illogical. You are aiming the phasers at the Enterprise.”

The only response he got was, “I’m aware, Commander, it won’t hurt anyone and it won’t damage her too badly. I told you to trust me.”

There were multiple protests from everyone in the room when the captain hit the fire button, however, everyone watched in silence as the beam hit the side of their former ship. Debris was flowing freely out into space from the Enterprise. The captain was right, the beam didn’t do much more than nick the side of the ship, although the blow wasn’t any easier to watch. 

Before anyone had the chance to speak regarding what had just happened, their ship rocked with the force of an unknown blow, the red alerts on the walls immediately glaring. Spock spoke up first, “Captain, we have seemed to have taken damage.”

Slightly angry, the captain replied, “I’m aware of that, Mr. Spock.”

Hands flying frantically over the controls, Jim yelled, “Kompyuta. Ambapo ni adui?” 

The console in front of their captain replied in a monotone voice, “Ishirini mia moja digrii tisa kushoto.”

The ship gave another lurch as Sulu asked from where he was hanging onto his seat, “Is there anything we can do, sir?”

The ship’s view screen was now switched to where there appeared to be a small cruiser just inside of the nebula, Jim immediately locked on and fired a plasma torpedo. All the while, Jim was continuing to talk back and forth with the computer of the ship. 

Everyone watched as the cruiser turned into an explosion of metal and flame. Jim yelled again in a language no one recognized as their ship suddenly went into warp in an unknown direction. Too focused on the action appearing in the view screen, doctor McCoy and the others almost failed to see when the console Jim was controlling gave a large spark of light followed by Jim giving a loud curse. 

Immediately forgetting about everything that just happened, Leonard sprung from his seat and sped next to Jim who was holding his arm to his chest and still trying with one hand to reach the console. “Damn it, Jim! Just stop for a moment. That thing probably electrocuted you.” 

The lights in the room flickered once and then twice as Jim said, “I’m fine, Bones. Just a little crispy on the outside.” 

Everyone in the room watched with concern as the doctor flipped Jim’s chair around to facing all of them and proceeded to scan over him with his tricorder. He had obviously brought his medkit with him to the bridge of the Enterprise before this whole mess started. 

Uhura spoke after the doctor had put down his scanner, “Is he going to be okay?”

Leonard grunted and replied, “Sure, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t an idiot. What in the gods’ names were you thinking? Using a console that has half the wires burned out? Huh, Jim?”

To prove his point, the console behind Jim let out another spark and a few more static sounding noises. 

Jim gave a smirk to his friend as he responded, “Bones, if I hadn’t used it, we would have never gotten away from the pirates. Based on the model of their ship, I’m guessing they were Orions, but you can never be exactly sure when it comes to pirates.”

Uhura remarked, “Of course you would know that.”

McCoy was now grumbling softly as he tore open the captain’s sleeve and applied a hypospray to his neck. When the hypospray even got close to his neck, Jim started to complain, but one glare from Bones and he relented. 

The captain gave a small wince when something was applied to the burn on his arm, but the doctor quickly asked, “Okay, Jim. Story time. You said you would explain all of this to us.”

Everyone hastily agreed, wanting to know exactly what was going on, and Jim hung his head at the inevitable, “Well, it’s a long story.” 

“Captain, I believe there will be a long enough time for you to recount the story, considering the nebula we were in was at least 24 light years away from any civilization we might see, discounting other ships and the Enterprise,” came the logical reply from his first officer. 

Jim smiled at Spock’s logic and answered, “Well, first off, we should be travelling for about 4 days before we reach our destination and we are currently going at about warp eight.” 

McCoy finished on Jim’s arm and wrapped it with a sparkling white bandage while Spock opened his mouth to question the captain’s comment about going warp eight, which was extremely fast for a vessel as small as this one. Jim held up his free hand and Spock was resigned to asking his question later. 

“No questions right now, I’ll answer them all after I tell the whole story. We should also go to a place in the ship that isn’t currently fuming and letting off sparks.”

McCoy stood up from where he was crouching next to the captain while the captain quickly spun around and clicked one last button on the console. 

There were protests from around the room, loudest of all McCoy’s, “Jim! I just fixed you up!” 

Jim smiled as he stood up and walked towards the door, “I had to make sure the ship would stay in warp, Bones.”

The doctor looked like he was about to have an aneurysm, but followed Jim out the door along with Spock, the rest of the crew following shortly behind. Jim lead them through the dimly lit hallway of the ship until he stopped at a door and entered in a code which opened up a room that looked similar to a lounge. 

The Captain was the first to enter and sit on a blue couch in the middle of the room with other chairs facing it. Slowly, the rest of the small group filled in, Spock and McCoy on either side of Jim and Chekov sitting on the floor in front of everyone when all the other chairs were taken. 

Jim rested his elbows on his knees as he put his face in his hands. No one spoke as they waited for him to start, although McCoy carefully got out his tricorder and began scanning Jim once again. 

His words slightly distorted from his hands, Jim said, “Bones, did you give me those funky antibiotics again?”

Bones sighed, “Yeah, kid. They’re the only ones that you aren’t completely allergic to that I had with me.”

The Captain nodded before sitting up straight and addressing everyone in the room, “Look, this is all my fault and I’m sorry all of you got dragged into it.” Uhura and Spock were about to protest, but Jim continued, “I’ll answer questions later, just listen for now.” Everyone gave their approval, while McCoy merely grunted. “I guess I’ll start in the beginning,” the Captain took a deep breath, “Before Starfleet and before I went back to Riverside where Uhura and I met the first time, I was in space and this was one of my old ships. 

“I was a part of a crew of people who weren’t exactly on the right side of the law and we did some pretty bad things... It’s kind of ironic actually, here I am, a Starfleet Captain, when back then I was the one running away from Starfleet.” Jim gave a little chuckle, but it was soon clear that he was the only one who found it amusing, so he kept talking, “Anyways, we were many things, some people called us mercenaries, others called us saviors, but at our heart I think we were just a bunch of people who were angry with how the universe had treated us, so we tried to change it. The pay wasn’t bad either I guess, but we tried to take jobs where we could help out the good guys...Although, that line was always blurry at best.

“The reason any of this is coming up now is becasue last week I saw someone on our ship who wasn’t supposed to be there. He is currently going by the name of Taylor Robertson and he holds the rank of an ensign, but that’s not who I knew him as. To me, he’s a part of a delegation of people who want me and everyone I care about dead.”

At this new information, Spock’s eyes widened in alarm with everyone else, “I stole something of theirs and destroyed part of their organization a while back and I suppose they’re still mad about that. The rest of my old crew is dead, so I guess they thought they would try and take you guys away from me instead,” Jim’s face grew hard and distant as he continued, “They shouldn’t have been able to find me, which means either they had dumb luck or someone gave me up. This is why we are going off the grid instead of going to the ‘fleet. We’ll have to stay in hiding until Admiral Barnett and a few other trusted friends weed out the moles in Starfleet. We were working on cleaning out Star Fleet secretly ever since Admiral Marcus and his rogue crew went against us.”

The Captain was now looked at the ground next to his feet, “Please don’t worry about your families, I have good people looking over them so they'll be safe, although I don't think anyone will try and go after them. I know that some of you will want to tell select people what’s going on so they don’t think the worst. However, it is imperative to our safety that the people you tell will keep it a secret. I rerouted a bunch of subroutines and reprogrammed the Enterprise’s warp capabilities so that Scotty will have a good reason to use impulse power to get back into communication range. Because we were so far out, it will take about six months for her to get there. Other ships don’t have the navigational ability to come and find the Enterprise so everyone will think we just disappeared, your families will more than likely be told that we haven’t been in contact with Starfleet, but to expect that we might not ever come back…”

Jim looked back up with a weary expression, “I guess that’s about it.”

Uhura was the first to speak, noticing her captain’s expression, “What? Did you think we wouldn’t willingly follow you out here? For a supposed genius, you’re being kind of stupid, Sir.”

Everyone else agreed, Chekov saying, “She is right, Captain.”

Showing his surprise at their reactions, Jim just nodded dumbly.

Spock was the first to ask a question, “Captain, this ship is going at warp eight, I would like to know how we will be able to hold that speed for the four days it will take to reach our destination.”

Jim nodded and then smiled, of course that would be what Spock would ask about, “Well, I’m a genius that’s how.” Spock raised one of his eyebrows in question, so Jim continued, “Myself and one of my old crew members tweaked the power distribution to the dilithium crystals and we finally got it to work out so that we could go higher speeds for longer periods of time.”

Spock’s questioning eyebrow still hadn’t gone down, but he said, “I see.”

Bones decided he would question the Captain next, “Okay, Jimmy, where exactly are we going?”  
“We are going to the planet Natora, I have a house there which will hopefully be large enough to fit all of us comfortably.”

“I have never heard of zhat planet, Captain,” came the reply from Chekov. 

“You wouldn’t have, it’s been long forgotten for over fifty years along with its people. The race of people residing on the planet, the Taeile, were discovered by Starfleet and at the time, the only thing Starfleet wanted was their advanced technology and minerals, so the Taeile quickly said no and basically scorned all of the ‘fleet for asking for their technology so they could make weapons. Shortly after that, the planet was forgotten because their people haven’t been exploring even though they have the technology to do so.”

Sulu broke into the conversation, “Sir, if they didn’t want anything to do with Starfleet or it’s people, how do you have a house there?”

Jim smiled, “I actually crashed there one time and they kind of took me in, they are actually a really amazing people.” Waiting for a few moments, Jim finally asks, “Any more questions?”

Uhura furrows her brows, “Yes, what language were you speaking to the ship’s computer?”

Sulu also asks, “And how did you even control and navigate the whole ship by yourself?”

Jim nods before answering, “I programmed the ship to use Terran Croatian. If someone were to try and take over the ship, I didn’t want them to be able to control her as well, and this is a small enough ship for me to be able to do all that stuff by myself, although it’s not very fun.”

Uhura was stunned that the Captain even had the patience to learn Croatian, but deferred from asking further questions. 

Jim yawned and McCoy promptly said, “We can talk more after you’ve gotten some rest, you idiot. I bet you haven’t been sleeping trying to come up with this crazy plan of yours.”

Jim said, “I’m fine, Bones, really,” but at his friend’s glare he continued, “But I guess I can show everyone to their temporary rooms anyways...”

The Captain got up and everyone followed him as he lead them to their rooms, “We’re short one room so someone will have to share.”

Chekov was about to speak up when the Captain continued, “And no, Chekov, you cannot room with Sulu. You guys flirt enough on the bridge.”

At this, both Sulu and Chekov blushed but continued following their Captain. Chekov let out a meek, “Yes, Sir.”

Doctor McCoy, who was walking next to Jim, bumped his shoulder and said, “Me and you will room together, kid. I still have to make sure you don’t react badly to the antibiotics I gave you. I know you’ve had them before, but I swear you gain allergies just to annoy me.”

Jim smiled, “I do everything just to annoy you, Bones.”

McCoy gave a grumpy, “You’re damn right.”

Soon enough, everyone was in their respective rooms and Jim promptly passes out on his side of the bed, his clothes and shoes still on. Leonard grumbles as he pulls of Jim’s shoes and puts him under the covers, “Stupid kid.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so I had my plot all lined out on my phone in my notes pages.. Guess what got deleted yesterday??? Oh well. Also, if you see any spelling errors or anything please speak up. When I put in the new languages in this chapter, Word told me that it wouldn’t be doing spelling or grammar checks anymore.
> 
> And I know that Sulu has a husband, but that doesn't mean that Chekov can't have a helpless crush lol.


End file.
